cheg

I thought that was manque.

Compact frames look squashed.

formulaben

I've never liked the look of a sloping top tube. A possible benefit is that with a longer extension of the seat post, you gain a bit of pseudo-suspension and maybe save a tiny bit of weight. Another small benefit is that it takes up slightly less space when shipping/transporting. Having said that, I think a traditional geometry is stronger and doesn't look funky. Giant probably pulls it off the best.

ViperZ

I don't mind the sloping top tubes. I think a traditional frame bike is more Handsome, however the new sloping TT have a "New Look". I guess we'll see in 10 years how well the design has aged. My next Road Bike will most likely be sloping.

I don't like the curved top tube look as those remind me too much of a Beach Cruiser, which typically conjures up slow heavy bikes made to be ridden at a slow speeds where the bike is barely balancing, or Pee Wee Herman goes Racing...

lilHinault

I agree, sloping top tubes are lame, and I own two sloping top tube bikes. :-/

Name the quote: "Want to touch my mankey?"

allgoo19

I don't think comparing those pictures is fair. What makes pic one doesn't look as sharp as the pic two is the position of the handle bar relative to the seat height. If it was adjusted to the same relative height as LeMond, it may not look as dorky as it does now.

By the way, am I the only one thinks Sincitycycler is entertaining?

.....in a wacky way?

zelah

definatly like traditional more, or even trackish sloping down forward

Sincitycycler

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I'm a long time muso that has found an enjoyable way to get in shape. We are all wacky. Try www.harmony-central.com, a musician's forum.
I noticed that alot of roadies are a conservative bunch...that's OK.

baj32161

I really have no preference. I have always liked the classic looks of traditional geometry
and once I saw compact, I liked the looks of them too. I bought a LeMond Tourmalet, which has a moderately sloping toptube and I fell in love with it. The Orbeas are sweet too.

H23

Compact looks okay if you are relatively short. For tall people it looks awful.

I look like I'm riding a kid's bike when on compact geom.

gabiker

I have to agree with this. Tall people it looks like it is all seat post and wheels.

classic1

For those of you who may have been wondering, I HATE UNISEX GIRLY BIKES. They look crap.

classic1

1st bike:

BOO! POOR SHOW, POOR SHOW. WHERE DO YOU PUT YOUR HANDBAG?

2nd bike: Yeah baby!


BRAVO. MUCH MORE MANLY AND HANDSOME. JOLLY GOOD SHOW.

cydewaze

I prefer the traditional as well.

One of my fears is that someday manufacturers will figure out a way to make a one-size-fits-all road frame, and you have some kind of crazy bent seatpost and telescoping stem that you flip/turn/slide/twist to make that one size fit you.

Wurm

I'll have you know sir that I yam a member in good standing of the Flat Earth Society, as well as Luddite's, Inc. Now, in the words of Foghorn Leghorn (in his famous undertone): "Go away bo-ay, yuh bother me."

Don Gwinn

No, Pokemon-lovers, he said "manky." As in "You manky Scottish git, I've soiled me armor!"

qmsdc15

I agree. I prefer the look and the design of compact frames. The handlebars are too high in the first photo. The second photo has negative rise stem which always looks wrong to me. Why not just have a shorter head tube (and lower top tube)? Unless you are very short, the frame is taller than it needs to be (more weight) and the stem has a tiny bit more metal than necessary. I like to see a stem that goes directly from the top of the headset to the handlebar. If a stem that is 90Ί from the head tube angle (slight rise), you have a stem that is as light as possible. It's not enough weight difference to really matter, but lighter LOOKS better to me (and that's why compact frames look better to me). A stem parallel to the ground or slightly more rise than 90Ί is fine, after all fit trumps looks anytime, but a stem that corrects for too long head tube looks like you made a mistake. Aesthetics are secondary, but that's my pet peeve. Couple a negative rise stem with riser bars on an MTB and you will see a little steam coming out of my ears when I see it, but hey, it doesn't really matter...

qmsdc15

I think he even has spacers under that down sloping stem to raise it! That's wack! Raising and lowering handlebar at the same time. Why?

TehArrow

i think it might me negative rise because the sarthe is a "classic" style from lemond and didnt older bikes have stems like that? (im thinking of the quill ones)

edit: you know what... im sorry but i think that stem is parallel to the ground... so your whole arguement was just crap :x

edit refering to wrong photo! my bad....

RiDE

You really are losing your touch. Quite late to the party eh?

Sincitycycler

but that Lemond is a horrible example of a traditional frame

???. The Lemond is retro - classic steel like what these guys rode:

boyRacer

Here's a better comparison to that Allez...

fixedfiend

Is it just me or does Ullrich's bike look completely wrong for road geometry? I can see this in maybe a track bike but a road bike with such a high seat and low stem just looks weird to me. I don't mind sloping top tubes but when the difference in seat and stem height is that great, it just seems to irk me in the private regions just looking at it.

ViperZ

Ullrich's bike looks hot! Being a pro he's flexible enough to ride that positioning all day long. I don't think it looks weird, I think it's how a race bike should look, rather than having bars even or close to even with the saddle. It's less pedestrian...

My Road bike positioning is set-up just like Ullrich's, not quite as low, but close

khuon

I'm too old school and think that sloping top-tube MTBs make them look like BMX bikes. There was a time when a great many MTBs had horizontally level top-tubes.

531Aussie

what spoils this bike is obvously the very upright stem.

It almost looks like a tourer. The pro bikes with low stems and virtually no spacers look "uber" cool.